Abstract:

Threshing of wheat is an important step to separate seeds/grains from the stalk and further processing
of wheat however the field harvesting has brought with it two major problems. The first one is the
damage to the grain caused by the impact of the combine cylinder on kernels which result in economic
loss to the farmer and potential loss of germination capability of wheat grain. The second one is the
over-grinding of stalk to form chaff-air-dust mixture which is thrown out of the thresher with cleaning-
blower force, which result in pollution of the environment and various dust-related allergies.

This study presents the solution to the above-mentioned problems in the form of a modified threshing
mechanism which does not depend on impact threshing but depends on compression-friction
mechanism. The compression-friction thresher separates wheat grain from straw-mat simply by rubbing
with controlled compression, which is gentle to the wheat grain structure and potentially would not
grind the MOG. Such compression-based threshers were investigated for corn shelling in the last
quarter of twentieth century however due to unavailability of DEM simulation, were not explored for
other crops like wheat. Using discrete element simulation, physical characteristics of the compression-
friction thresher such as drum diameter, speed, concave clearance is proposed.

A prototype model of a compression-friction thresher is developed in Autodesk Fusion and simulated

based on discrete element method (DEM) simulation by applying the Hertz Mindlin contact model.
Optimum concave clearance was studied in terms of compressive force occurring in the system. The
results shown are promising for future and detailed design and development of this machine.

Keywords: CAD, DEM, EDEM, Compression, MOG, Rubber Roller, Physical properties

1. Introduction

Pakistan is an agricultural country and requires mechanized agricultural techniques therefore around
500 agricultural machinery manufacturing units are in-service with a capacity of 1.38 million per annum,
which include sugarcane crushers, threshers, rotavators, shredders, huskers, seed drills, ploughs,
harrows, rice hullers and polishers such as cultivators, sugarcane crushers, plant protection equipment,
rice husking machine, wheat threshers, drills, harrows, ploughs, chaff cutters, rice hullers and rice
polishing machines (Ajmal U.B, 2017). The conventional methods for wheat threshing are high power
consuming (Syed Amjad Ahmad, 2013), detrimental to wheat grain (Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury,1973),
source of pollution to the environment and hazardous to the growers, operators and to the community
(Melville H. Litchfield, 1998).

Threshing is one of the essential post-harvesting practices which can affect the quantitative and
qualitative losses. There are three main types of stationary threshing machines which have been
developed for present day combines, which are cross-flow rasp-bar cylinders, axial flow rasp-bar
cylinders and spike-tooth cylinders also called beater cylinders (R.A. Kepner, 1978). Spike-tooth cylinders
were almost used in every machine before 1930, but later on due to some problems were discontinued
and almost all the combines and stationary threshing machines were installed with rasp-bar cylinders
(R.A. Kepner, 1978).
Since wheat cannot be milled or processed effectively until it has been threshed and cleared of stalk and
chaff, therefore threshing is the first essential postharvest step towards increasing the efficiency of
wheat usage ( ). Knowledge on the physical properties of wheat, especially geometrical shape and
moisture content is essential to design and optimize the processing equipment ( ). Satisfactory threshing
is achieved when the seeds are entirely removed from the straw mat, without sustaining any internal or
external damage; and that is possible only by applying the correct method of separation ( ). Although
numerous machines are working with varies mechanisms of threshing (), however, to our knowledge,
no studies have been published on the systematic design and optimization of a high-throughput
thresher, with low power consumption, low dust generation, low chaff generation and low damage to
the wheat grain.

Empirical methods to study the threshing process are time consuming and do not give practicable
results due to the inability of considering the effects of a bulk of material rather than a single particle ( ).
In order to achieve highest efficiency, least damage to wheat grain, realistic design can be achieved with
numerical methods in which the discrete element method (DEM) is preferable and reliable, based on the
physical properties of wheat grain and straw ().

Until recently, DEM has proven its worth as a three dimensional numerical tool to model bulk systems
based on fundmental physical laws including Newton's second law of motion and force-displacement
laws (Boac, Casada, Maghirang, & Harner, 2010; Raji & Favier, 2004a). The systems in which DEM has
proven successful include all systems consisting of discrete particles group or assembly with specified
physical properties and particle interaction occuring only at contact points.

The DEM simulation uses particle simulation at the micro-scale to visualize the bulk system at macro-
scale (Raji & Favier, 2004a). Therefore, all such micro-scale physical properties (including density, size,
shear modulus and Poisson's ratio) and particle interaction properties (static and rolling friction,
coefficient of restitution) form the basis of simulation (Boac et al., 2010; Horabik & Molenda, 2016).

DEM has been used as a reliable tool for modelling granular material being processed in a machinery
and going through various loadings (Boac, Ambrose, Casada, Maghirang, & Maier, 2014; Raji & Favier,
2004a; Yu, Fu, Li, & Shen, 2005). Moreover, DEM has also established its worth to analyze deformation
of granular materials including oilseeds and similar materials (Raji & Favier, 2004a, 2004b), crushing
equipment simulation (Delaney, Morrison, Sinnott, Cummins, & Cleary, 2015), and to optimize/improve
agricultural machines (Yu et al., 2005) and postharvest operations (Boac et al., 2014). In response to
similar problems as wheat threshing, Delaney et al. (2015) studied particle breakage by applying DEM
simulation in an industrial cone crusher. DEM works by predicting dynamic parameters such as
trajectories and contact forces for non-spherical particle, which is very difficult to measure analytically
(Delaney et al., 2015; Lu, Third, & Mu¨ ller, 2015; Zhu, Zhou, Yang, & Yu, 2007).

DEM method considers a sphere as a basic geometrical shape for building up DEM simulation (Boac et
al., 2010; Raji & Favier, 2004a). Since practical situations frequently require non-spherical particles to be
simulated therefore DEM uses a technique by combining multiple spheres to represent the shape of
desired non-spherical particle, such technique provides an advantage which is a fast and robust
algorithm for contact detection and determination of contact and momentum parameters (Lu et al.,
2015; Zhong, Yu, Liu, Tong, & Zhang, 2016). DEM works by transferring the contact forces from one
particle contact point to the center of the neighboring particle with velocity updation for each time step
(Abbaspour-Fard, 2004).
In this study, a compression-friction based wheat thresher was modelled and simulated using DEM and
tested with FEA under controlled conditions. The required physical properties of wheat are taken from
available data.

Materials and Methods:

2.1. Determination of physical and interaction properties of Wheat Grain and Straw

To establish a 3D-model of wheat grain and straw, data from the published existing literature was taken
as a basis.

a) Wheat Grain Fracture Resistance:

Fracture resistance of wheat grain was measured in terms of grain rupture force and energy.
The wheat grains were quasi-statically loaded in horizontal and vertical orientations with
moisture content in three levels: 7.8%, 15%, and 20%; and loading rate in two levels: 5 and
10 mm min-1. Based on the results obtained, the force required for initiating grain rupture
decreased from 77.68 to 35.7 N and 152.11 to 63.99 N, and the energy absorbed at grain
rupture increased from 17.8 to 24.34 mJ and 19.32 to 28.35 mJ, with increase in moisture
content from 7.8 to 20% d.b., for vertical and horizontal orientations, respectively. This
showed that grains are more flexible in horizontal orientation. Rupture force requires less
energy under vertical loading than horizontal loading. Maximum energy absorbed was found
to be 32.40 mJ for grain with 20% moisture content under horizontal loading and 5 (mm
min-1) loading rate. The highest mechanical strength (162.61 N) is related to grain with a
moisture content of 7.8% under horizontal loading and 5 (mm min-1) loading rate. Energy
absorbed by the seeds decreased as increased loading rate. (Abbas Gorji, Hamed Tavakoli,
Australian Journal of Crop Science, August 2010)

b) Wheat Grain Physical Properties:

Other Physical properties of wheat were required for developing the machines for designing
of machine. Physical properties of wheat varieties (Sakha93) were determined and
compared for moisture content 9, 11, 13 and 15% w.b. The average length, width and
thickness was 7.46, 3.37 and 2.66 mm at a moisture content of 9% w.b., respectively.
Gheorghe, 2013). Wheat grain shear modulus, density, coefficient of restitution, coefficient
of static friction, coefficient of rolling friction and Poisson’s ratio are taken as 5.1E7 Pa, 1350
kg/m3, 0.42, 0.35, 0.05 and 0.42 respectively ( Xiaolong Lei, 2016).

c) Wheat Straw Physical and Mechanical Properties:

The objective of this research was to determine the effects of moisture content and
internode position on some physical and mechanical properties of wheat straw. The
experiments were conducted at four moisture contents of 10.2, 14.3, 18.4, and 22.6% w.b.
and at three internode positions down from the ear. Based on the results obtained, the
values of the physical properties increased with increasing moisture content. The physical
properties also increased towards the third internode position. For all the physical
properties studied, the values of the first internode position had significant differences with
those of the other two internode positions. Moreover, for the moisture contents studied in
 this research, the values of shear strength were within the ranges 6.81-10.78, 7.02-11.49,
and 7.12-11.78 MPa for the first, second and third internode positions, respectively. The
maximum specific shearing energy was 36.26 mJ mm-2, which occurred at the third
internode position with the moisture content of 22.6% w.b. The bending strength and
Young's modulus decreased with increase in the moisture content. Their values also
decreased towards the third internode position (H.Tavakoli, S.S. Mohtasebi,and A. Jafari,
Int.Agrophysics,2009,23,175-181). Bulk density of wheat straw varies with moisture content
from 24.16 to 111.13 kg/m3 (P. S. Lam, S. Sokhansanj, X. Bi, S. Mani, C.J. Lim, Paper Number:
076058, American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, 2007). O’Dogherty et al.
(1995) showed that the Young's modulus for wheat straw varied between 4.76 and 6.58
GPa. The static coefficient of friction for wheat straw at 10% moisture content (wb), and
whole green barley at 51% moisture content (wb) were 0.13 and 0.21, respectively (S.
Afzalinia, CANADIAN BIOSYSTEMS ENGINEERING, Volume 49, 2007). The coefficient of
restitution, coefficient of rolling friction and poisson ratio of wheat straw are taken as 0.2,
0.01 and 0.25 respectively. Length of the straw, diameter and wall thickness is taken as 700
mm, 3.45 mm and 1 mm respectively (Bart Lenaerts, Computers and Electronics in
Agriculture 101 (2014) 24–33).

2.2. Three-dimensional design of Wheat Grain and Straw:

Based on the data presented above, a 3DDEM- template of Wheat Grain and Straw was designed
according to multi-sphere method, explained by Lu et al. (2015) and Abbaspour-Fard (2004), as an ovoid
particle using EDEM 2.6 (DEM Solutions Ltd., Edinburgh, United Kingdom).

Increasing the number of the spheres leads to a more irregular representation of an ovoid, and thus
altering the physical properties such as angle of repose and porosity (Markauskas, Kacianauskas,
Dziugys, & Navakas, 2010). On the other hand, non-physical behaviour in the contact models and high
computational load occurs as the number of spheres increases (Lu et al., 2015). Therefore, the three-
dimensional shape of wheat Grain with Straw mat was constructed from overlapping three spheres and
adjusted to be as close as possible to the real shape of wheat, as shown in Fig. 1.

2.3. Construction of the Wheat Thresher 3D Model:

A 3D-design of a prototype Compression-Friction type Wheat Thresher was established using Autodesk
fusion (Autodesk systems). Shear modulus of the steel and Poisson's ratio are 70 GPa and 0.3,
respectively. The threshing rotor consisted of a 450 mm long rubber cylinder of 2 mm wall thickness
inflated with air of pressure of 10 kg/cm2 (Fig. 2). Outer diameter and mass of the threshing rotor was
220 mm and 12.1 kg, respectively.

The rotor was placed in a housing, the inner wall of which was used as threshing area (i.e. a concave)
where 30 metal bars (4 x 4 mm) were welded to increase the friction at one side of the housing. A
hopper was placed on top of the rotor housing and a 50 x 50mm L-section at the bottom of the hopper
served as outlet opener for controlling the material flow. The overall dimensions of the threshing unit
were 500 mm in length, 367 mm in width and 558 mm in height and the weight of the unit was 56.3 kg.

The critical feature of the threshing unit is the clearance adjustment between threshing rotor and
concave and pneumatic pressure adjustment in the threshing drum (Fig. 3). To set the position, the shaft
of the rotor was coupled to two adjustable flanges at each side of the threshing unit. A pair of bearing
flanges served to hold the ball bearings and to slide the rotor linearly, while a pair of bolt flanges
allowed to swivel the bearing flanges along a cam track.

The wheat crop is threshed in two phases. In the first phase, the wheat crop is compressed between the
threshing drum and the concave, this compression and associated friction due to normal reaction
weakens the bond between wheat grain and straw mat. In the second phase, wheat crop passes through
threshing drum and reciprocating/oscillating strainer. This oscillating strainer breaks the weakened bond
between wheat grain and straw mat and the oscillations further separate the grain away from MOG
(straw and the mat). Once separated, wheat grain falls through the holes in the strainer in the collection
tray. The lighter material including straw mat pieces and dust are collected through mild vacuum
generated in the threshing chamber, the vacuum(suction) is created by a small fan, containing cleaning
elements which throws the clean air outside from the thresher exhaust hood.

2.4. Physical background of discrete element method simulation

Newton's second law of motion gives the correlation between particle displacements and forces acting
at the contact points, which are calculated over a discrete time step (Raji & Favier, 2004a). As an
implementation of force-displacement laws, algorithms developed for particleeparticle and particle-wall
interactions in a HertzeMindlin contact model have been widely utilised in DEM applications (Boac et al.,
2014; Horabik & Molenda, 2016; Markauskas, Ramı´rez-Gomez, Kacianauskas, & Zdancevicius, 2015; Raji
& Favier, 2004a; Weerasekara et al., 2016). Moreover, this contact model is recommended as the
constitutive law for simulating agricultural particulate materials (Horabik & Molenda, 2016).

In this study, the model was adapted to predict the choke point, where the breakage location of J.
curcas fruit (particle i) occurred and was closely related to the minimum distance between concave and
rotor (geometry j) (Delaney et al., 2015).

Under various adjustments of upper and lower concave clearance, compressive force, Fc (N) was
estimated as the maximum normal force achieved on individual particles at the choke point. Contact
forces between two non-spherical Fig. 1 objects have been considered following the approach of
Horabik and Molenda (2016) and Lu et al. (2015).

Normal force, Fn (N) was derived according to the Hertzian principle for elastic components, as
explained by Raji and Favier (2004a):

where dn is normal overlap in m, and Gij, Rij, yi and yj are the shear modulus (Pa), radius of curvature
and Poisson's ratio of particle i and geometry j, respectively.

Force, tangential to surface, Ft (N) was estimated as (DEM Solutions Ltd, 2014; Raji & Favier, 2004a):

Damping ratio, b was calculated as a function of coefficient of restitution, e (Hu, Hu, Jian, Liu, & Wan,
2011; Tsuji, Kawaguchi, & Tanaka, 1993):

Normal and tangential damping forces, Fdn and Fdt (N), were calculated according to DEM Solutions Ltd
(2014) and Raji and Favier (2004a):
where Cn and Ct are defined as normal and tangential damping coefficients, and KH is Hertz constant
dependent on geometric parameters.mi andmj are the unit masses of fruit and cracking rotor in kg,
respectively.

Relative normal velocity, nn,rel (m s1) was defined as relative velocity between fruit and the rotor in the
normal direction, as explained by Lu et al. (2015). Relative tangential velocity, nt,rel (m s1) of colliding
particle and wall was calculated according to Remy, Khinast, and Glasser (2009).

Friction force, Fs (N) between fruit and concave was estimated from coefficient of static friction and
normal force (Abbaspour-Fard, 2004; Mishra & Rajamani, 1992):

where FT is resultant force (N) as described by Raji and Favier (2004a), and d the position vector from
axis of shaft rotation at any contact point, l between fruit and the rotor (m). At each time step, the rotor
torque was calculated and the average value from each rotor position was recorded at the end of each
simulation run.

Power requirement, P (kW) is an important parameter to evaluate the compression performance in the
cracking unit (Quist & Evertsson, 2016). Prediction of power requirement is straight forward, since the
resultant forces and torque exerted by the fruits are known (Cleary, 1998; Cleary, Morrisson, & Morrell,
2003). Thus, the power requirement was estimated from torque and angular velocity, uj (rad s1) of rotor
as (Cleary et al., 2003; Karaj & Mu¨ ller, 2011):

Specific energy input per kg of fruits, Es (kWh kg1) was calculated as (Karaj & Mu¨ ller, 2011):

2.5. Discrete element method simulation of the threshing process

The DEM simulation was performed by varying the clearance between rotor and concave and varying
the oscillation frqeuncy of the strainer tray. Based on preliminary trials with the virtual prototype, the
range of x was set to 1.33, 1.20 and 1.00 times Dg, while y was set to 0.80 and 0.67 times Dg, resulting in
six simulation runs of different rotor positions shown in Table 1.

The simulations were carried out using EDEM 2017,where the run time, ts (s) was set to 2 s and the data
was recorded for a time increment of 0.01 s. Rayleigh time step was set to 0.326 ms and cell size to
2.85mm. Rotational speed of 70 rpm was set for the rotor. Following former simulations of grain
threshing (Miu & Kutzbach, 2008), size homogeneity of the material and constant throughput were
taken as general assumptions.

2.6. Simulation test of the virtual prototype threshing device

The prototype huller was tested under practise conditions at JatroGreen S.A.R.L on a Jatropha-
plantation located in Southwest Madagascar (Rajaona, Brueck, & Asch, 2011).

Physical properties of the J. curcas fruits in Madagascar Dg ¼ 21.79 ± 1.11 mm) have been in accordance
with those obtained from Egypt (Dg ¼ 21.19 ± 0.52 mm).
The device was driven by a 0.75 kW electric motor (Premium Stephan B.V, Hameln, Germany) at a
rotational speed of 71 rpm, which was the minimum speed that the motor could perform. The output of
hulled fruits was separated into hulls and seeds using a rotating perforated cylinder with 13 mm
diameter holes, which was 1000 mm long and 450 mm in diameter. The cylinder was set at a tilt angle of
5 and was driven by the cracking rotor through a pulley system with a speed reduction of 2:1 (Fig. 4).

Throughput of fruits, TPfruit (kg h1) was calculated as solid loading rate based on the input of fruits, S
(kg) during a defined period of test run, t (h):

Hulling efficiency, h (%) was estimated as the ratio of separated hulls and total mass of hulls of the fruits
before hulling (kg), as follows

3. Results

3.1. Discrete element method-relevant physical and interaction properties of J. curcas fruits

Properties relevant for J. curcas fruits in DEM simulations, in terms of geometric characteristics and
mechanical properties are listed in Table 2. Moisture content was identified at 2.8 ± 0.3%. Geometric
characteristics refer to fruit dimension (length, width, thickness and geometric mean diameter),
percentage of hulls in one fruit, hull thickness, unit mass and solid density. It can be seen that the fruit
dimensions were homogeneous. Mechanical properties such as rupture force, deformation point,
Poisson's ratio and shear modulus were also observed. In order to crack the fruit completely the rupture
force was 191.5 N.

A comparison of the experimental and DEM-fitted coefficients of particleeparticle restitution between J.

curcas fruits and a steel surface and particleewall among the fruits is shown in Fig. 5. Due to the high
similarity between the measured and simulated results, it can be seen that values of 0.13 and 0.45
appear to be reasonable for coefficients of particleeparticle and particleewall restitution, respectively.

More interaction properties of J. curcas fruits are presented in Table 3. Similar coefficients of static
friction between particleeparticle and particleewall interaction was observed

3.2. Estimation of compressive force, rotor torque and specific energy input by discrete element method
simulation

Figure 6 presents the compression profiles of the J. curcas fruits in the cracking unit under different
adjustments of the rotor position in terms of upper and lower concave clearance. With respect to the
mechanical properties of the fruits, rupture force was determined as the rupture threshold. It can be
seen that the estimated compressive force was only reached with narrow clearance settings (IVeVI). At
rotor position VI, the clearances were narrow and the choke point was reached at the upper part of the
rotor. Too large upper and small lower concave clearances were detected at rotor position I, II and III
that generated insufficient compression to overcome fracture resistance of the fruits. As demonstrated
at rotor position IV and V, the choke points were located at the middle or lower part of the huller.

The correlation of upper and lower concave clearance and compressive force generated on J. curcas
fruits is presented in Fig. 7. The compressive force increased as the upper and lower clearance
decreased. The optimum combination between upper and lower concave clearance was indicated by the
intersection line between estimated compressive force and rupture force of J. curcas fruits. In order to
generate adequate compression, the upper concave clearance should be set between 21.2 and 23.6
mm, and the lower clearance between 14.1 and 15.7 mm.

Mathematical model of compressive force for different concave clearances is presented in Eq. (16) (R2 ¼
0.995, RMSE ¼ 11.65):

Figure 8 shows estimated rotor torque and specific energy input as the function of upper and lower
concave clearance. Larger upper and lower clearance would lead to lower torque and specific energy
input. For theoretical optimum x and ycombinations (Fc ¼ FR), rotor torque ranged from 60 to 110 Nm,
while specific energy input ranged from 0.013 to 0.021 kWh kg1.

The mathematical model of torque and specific energy input for different concave clearances is shown
in Eq. (17) (R2 ¼ 0.993, RMSE ¼ 5.61) and Eq. (18) (R2 ¼ 0.994, RMSE ¼ 0.0008), respectively:

Estimated power as required for different rotor positions is presented in Fig. 9. Large upper concave
clearance such as position I, II and III would generate low compression to the fruits and consequently
low power requirement (<0.10 kW).

Highest power requirement of 1.01 kW was estimated for position VI, and medium power requirement
of 0.40 and 0.43 kW for position IV and V, respectively.

The prediction ability of the DEM simulation was tested by comparing the estimated normal force-
displacement relationship with the experimental force-deformation profile of J. curcas fruit, as shown in
Fig. 10. It can be seen that larger overlaps induced higher forces. Based on the model, measured
deformation at rupture point (4.6 mm) resulted in the predicted normal force of 251.8 N, which was
higher than the experimentally established rupture force of 191.5 N that would be found at a normal
overlap of 3.9 mm. The accuracy analysis of the model showed RMSE of 60.30 and 0.70 for the applied
normal force and normal overlap, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, previous studies on the
compression prediction model for seeds or fruits that can be used as reference were not found. With
respect to the results, the prediction model analysis showed good agreement to the empirical
mechanical properties of J. curcas fruits. The correlation between the estimated normal overlap (in mm)
and normal force was fitted to a Hertz model (Eq. (19)) with R2 ¼ 0.999 and RMSE ¼ 1.87

3.3. Performance test of the real prototype with regards to throughput and hulling efficiency

Figure 11 shows the experimental work conducted in Madagascar with the prototype J. curcas huller. At
a constant rotational speed (71 rpm), throughput of fruits varied from 250 to 1152 kg h1 by adjusting
the loading rate. For each setup, the separated hulls and seeds were weighted.

Table 4 presents the results of the field performance of J. curcas huller in terms of hulling efficiency at
different throughputs. The highest hulling efficiency of 98.8% was achieved when throughput of fruits
was 477 kg h1. The lowest efficiency of 78.7% was measured at a throughput of 1152 kg h1. It was
observed that frequent blockage occurred, when a pile formation of fruit was induced with a high
throughput at the upper part of the cracking rotor. This resulted in a higher power requirement which
exceeded the maximum capacity of the electric motor. Using a reciprocating sieving machine, around
3e5% of sand and stones, coming from harvest activities and collection of the fruits after sun drying, was
separated.

4. Discussion
This paper presented numerical study of hulling process of J. curcas fruits using DEM simulation. It was
observed that the compression of J. curcas fruits was governed by physical and mechanical properties,
particularly geometric mean diameter, hull thickness and rupture force (Koyuncu et al., 2004).

Therefore, the huller could also be used for other materials with similar cracking characteristics
Moisture content and the dimension of the fruits were lower than those of black fruit from India, as
reported by Pradhan et al. (2009). However, solid density was significantly higher for the fruits tested
here than those reported for Indian fruits. Poisson's ratio of the dried fruit seems lower than the normal
range of 0.3, which has been adopted or calculated for agricultural products (Abbaspour-Fard, 2004;
Horabik & Molenda, 2016). The shear modulus was higher than potato (1.95 MPa) and apple (1.65 MPa),
but lower than soybean (45.00 MPa), as reported by (Horabik & Molenda, 2016) and red bean grains at
moisture content of 5% (in average 87.89 MPa), as reported by Kiani Deh Kiani et al. (2011). The hulls of
the dried fruit are formed in three segments and bound to each other. Breakage resistance of the bonds
among the hulls and high elasticity of the dried hulls could cause high axial deformation during
compression.

For particle-particle interaction, the coefficient was slightly lower than coefficient of maize, namely 0.2
(Markauskas et al., 2015). The coefficient between the fruits and steel was similar to that for the
particle-wall coefficient of olives, namely 0.41 (Horabik & Molenda, 2016). The coefficient of particle-
wall rolling friction was highly similar to coarse glass beads (Zhou et al., 2002). Coefficient of particle-
particle static friction was in the range of the coefficients for agricultural products, namely from 0.12 to
0.65, as reported by Horabik and Molenda (2016)

J. curcas fruits have been hulled as the compressive force exceeds the rupture force of fruit (Cleary &
Sinnott, 2015; Karaj & Mu¨ ller, 2010). Among all the contact forces, normal force plays a major role in
material breakage during compression (Quist & Evertsson, 2016). Using the huller, the fruits were
compressed between two converging surfaces, namely rotor and concave. Therefore, the number of
collision and contact forces on the fruits corresponded to the breakage probability (Cleary & Sinnott,
2015; Quist & Evertsson, 2016).

Too large upper and small lower concave clearances can result in a considerable number of uncracked
fruits, as shown at position I, II and III. As demonstrated at rotor position VI, minimum upper and lower
concave clearances could obviously generate high compression and crack the fruits, but it might
generate small fragments of the hulls. The fragments could lead to a high proportion of contaminants on
seeds that could hamper seed shelling as the next process after hulling. As the choke point was reached
at the upper part of the rotor, blockage could very likely occur near the hopper outlet, due to
accumulation of fruits. Therefore, upper concave clearance must be bigger than the geometric mean
diameter of the fruits to some extent, in order to allow flow of the material passing the cracking unit
without any blockages. On the other hand, lower concave clearance should be smaller than the
geometric mean diameter of the fruits by a minimum difference of deformation at rupture point to
create sufficient compressive force. The location of choke point demonstrated at rotor position IV and V
were desirable, where the point was located near the outlet of the huller. Moreover, the prediction
model developed in this study provides a theoretical operating range of optimum upper and lower
clearances that should be investigated in further research.

The predicted specific energy was higher than that of a reciprocating sheller of peanut, namely 0.003
kWh kg1 (Helmy, Abdallah, Mitrroi, & Basiouny, 2013), but exposed a similar range as a hammer mill for
corn stover (0.011e0.033 kWh kg1) as reported by Mani, Tabil, and Sokhansanj (2004). The power
consumption of the huller was similar to a groundnut sheller, namely 0.75 kW (Gore, Gupta, & Singh,
1990) but lower than that of a peanut sheller (2.2 kW) reported by Singh and Thongsawatwong (1983).

Estimation of power requirements might be subject to substantial error (Cleary et al., 2003; Quist &
Evertsson, 2016), and therefore further trials with the real prototype should be conducted in the future
to validate the predictions.

The outlet opening of the hopper defines the amount of solid material loaded into the cracking unit and
simultaneously influences the flow behaviour of the material (Han et al., 2016). By adjusting the
throughput accordingly, the hopper outlet opener could perform properly in controlling the material
flow. The opener proofed to be an effective component that allowed only one single-row of fruits at a
time, providing maximum contact with rotor and concave.

Rotational speed of the rotor, throughput and concave clearance determined the kinematics of fruits
passing the cracking unit. The importance of these operational factors was also observed on a threshing
unit for grains in a combine harvester (Miu & Kutzbach, 2007).

Since compression generated to detach the hulls from the fruit in the clearance between rotor and
concave depends on fruit size, sieving the fruits as pre-treatment is necessary to ensure size
homogeneity. The existence of sand and stones is expected to cause wear of the cracking rotor.
Therefore, the removal of sand and stones using sieves is recommended (Lim et al., 2015).

Moisture content was also pointed out as another important operational factor, as it affects the physical
properties of the fruits considerably (Subramanian, Shamanthaka Sastry, & Venkateshmurthy, 1990). To
achieve an efficient hulling operation, moisture content of J. curcas fruits should be low and
homogeneous.

5. Conclusion

The potential of DEM modelling to explore and understand compression profiles and flow behaviour
during hulling operation of J. curcas fruits, with regards to its physical properties, has been
demonstrated. The simulation model exhibits how the fruits flow and where they are cracked in the
huller. Under different upper and lower concave clearances, estimation and visualisation of
instantaneous force on the fruits could be performed to identify the choke point location. Predictions of
optimum cracker setting, power requirement and specific energy input have been made. In the future,
more comprehensive field measurement should be conducted to validate the accuracy of this novel
numerical approach.

Further research is also required to estimate the critical bonding strength according to fruit size and to
obtain more empirical data on DEM-related properties of J. curcas hulls and seeds. The DEM results
obtained are only applicable for the specific characteristics of J. curcas fruits used in this study. As J.
curcas fruits can vary in physical properties, hulling performance has to be investigated in further
research using fruits from other cultivars and provenances.

Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by Bundesministerium fu¨ r Bildung und Forschung (BMBF),
Berlin, Germany and carried out under Project 033R069A, Integrated Jatropha curcas de-hulling, de-
shelling, de-oiling and detoxification process for efficient production of high grade designer protein feed
and plant oil (01.03.2012 to 30.09.2014). The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of Dipl.-Ing.
Joachim Pf€ortner and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stefan B€ottinger, Institute of Agricultural Engineering.

Mathematical Model:

When the wheat straw is input into the thresher, consider it as a bulk of solid material with a density of
s1 and s2 at thresher concave, feed rate f and the drum rotating at speed N.

Let the width of the thresher drum be w and the diameter be D. At the entrance let the concave
dimension is b1 and at the throat, let the concave dimension be b2. Also let v be the velocity of material
at input. Mathematically:
1
b

b2

Material input rate: b1 x w x v m3/s

V depends upon the drum rotational speed and the drum diameter D therefore

Material input rate: b1 x w x (π D N/60) x 3600 m3/hr

Inserting density and simplifying:

Material input rate: b1 x w x (π D N) x 60 x s1 kg/hr

With similar logic, material at the throat can be written as:

Material at throat rate: b2 x w x (π D N) x 60 x s2 kg/hr

The thresher works with friction separation and the friction depends on the normal reaction as well as
the surfaces in contact. The normal reaction depends on the compression ratio and compression ratio
can be written as:

Compression Ratio (CR) = Material Input rate / Material Throat rate

= b1 x w x (π D N) x 60 x s1 / b2 x w x (π D N) x 60 x s2

Let us assume a normal compressive force of N1 at the inlet partially due to gravity and due to thresher
inlet chute design then the force at the concave N2, which is the ultimate normal reaction, can be
written as:

N2 = N1 x CR
 = N1 x (b1 x w x (π D N) x 60 x s1 / b2 x w x (π D N) x 60 x s2)

Simplifying:

N2 = N1 x (b1 x s1)/(b2 x s2)

Let the coefficient of friction at the concave be µ, and then the frictional force (F) at the concave can be
written as:

F = µ x N1 x (b1 x s1)/(b2 x s2)

µ depends on the following factors:

 Surface Type (Spiked and uneven surface is preferable)

 Speed of the drum (High speed would reduce the coefficient of friction because it would tend to
convert the static friction to tolling friction)
 Moisture in the crop (More moisture would reduce the friction because it would tend to
lubricate the surfaces)

N1 depends on the inlet chute design, the inlet chute should be of diverging construction to accept more
material and provide mild compression at the inlet.

b1, s1, b2, s2 selection cannot go unrealistic for the increase of CR because too much high CR may result
in grinding of straw to create dusting which is to be avoided.